What's your single favourite SF book since 2000?

bloody hard to choose, but...

'The Skinner' by Neal Asher. Closely followed by 'Kethani' by Eric Brown. 2 totally different books, but both supremely enjoyable.
 
Danogzilla said:
Could you give some reasons why this is your favorite SF since 2000? I have Blindsight and Starfish, and I'm getting myself pumped up to read some Peter Watts.
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The best part of the book for me were the aliens and their psychology. For me this was the first time reading about an alien life form that didn't think like us, not even close. Usually aliens in scifi behave almost exactly like us, they have the same needs and desires, they just look different. Lots of cool ideas about how we perceive intelligence and our own sense of being. I particularly liked the parts of the book where the 'human' crew were communicating with the aliens. They named the alien (or just the ship?) Rorschach... I wont spoil anything for you on that. Google "Rorschach test" and "Chinese room" for some background on some of the themes before reading the book.

If you like Blindsight I highly recommend Watts' short stories, most are freely available on his website. The Things, The Island, and Malak are my favorites.

Starfish and the rest of his Rifters book are good too, but much heavier reading.
 
Someone needs to tabulate this up somehow, good source of recommendations. Even though I havent overly enjoyed all of the recommended books that much (Blindsight and Use of Weapons for example), at least all of the books I've read that people are pushing are undeniably interesting. (Side note: I'm not 100% sure I read Blindsight, as the version I read was novella length -- is there an expanded version?)

For me, maybe Hamilton's stuff, although I've enjoyed some of the others mentioned as well.
 
ArtNJ said:
Someone needs to tabulate this up somehow
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OK, here it is. Only those who gave 1 choice (or a top choice from a shortlist) have been counted:

Top books:

Blindsight - Peter Watts (3 votes)
Anathem - Neil Stephenson (2 votes)

All these have 1 vote each so far:

Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton
Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton
Captain Vorpatrils's Alliance - Lois McMaster Bujold
Off Armageddon Reef - D. Weber
The Kings of Eternity - Eric Brown
Light - M. John Harrison
Stone - Adam Roberts
Surface Detail - Iain M Banks
The Islanders - Christopher Priest
The Separation - Christopher Priest
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Hominids - R.J. Sawyer
Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan
1632 - Eric Flint
The Skinner - Neal Asher
Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
 
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There seems to be a reasonable amount of love for Eric Flint in this thread. I may have to try 1632 (not read it yet but it is available on the BFL iirc), see what it's like - my experience with his work so far is that I'll read it once, think I've enjoyed it, try to reread it and end up switching the e-reader in irritation after a few pages because his writing style is annoying me for some reason, and subsequently remove it from the device.
 
Patched said:
There seems to be a reasonable amount of love for Eric Flint in this thread. I may have to try 1632 (not read it yet but it is available on the BFL iirc), see what it's like - my experience with his work so far is that I'll read it once, think I've enjoyed it, try to reread it and end up switching the e-reader in irritation after a few pages because his writing style is annoying me for some reason, and subsequently remove it from the device.
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I found it to be full of Mary Sues to a ridiculous degree. I liked the Nantucket series better -- suffers from some of the same problems, but not to the same degree.
 
Ropie said:
Ha! I'd never heard this expression before - thanks for the heads up :D
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Your welcome. I sort of think that if the plot of your story is that a town gets transported back in time (i.e. both 1632 and the Nantucket series), you NEED Mary Sues, or your townspeople will just get scalped or burned as witches or what not. So I get why people like 1632 and tolerate the Mary Sues. But it was just too much for me personally, not saying you might not like it.
 
I would also say The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell and the spinoffs. Some of the only recent books I've reread a few times.
 
I'd put in a recomendation for Spin by Robert Charles Wilson and then just about everything else he's written.
Above all he's a good writer who creates believable characters which IMO is rare in SF.
 
Probably Blindsight by Peter Watts. I didn't get to a lot of ones I want to read and I'm probably forgetting some folk I did read, but that was a major standout. His Rifters books deserve a nod -- I've only read Starfish so far, but it was good.

But I'll also give a shout out to The Hunger Games and The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacilagupi, which I just finished and in the middle there sort of wondered if I'd really like it, but then did quite a bit. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi had good writing and some interesting bits. I'll also wave yay for two books I consider futuristic fantasy novels, but some people prefer to call science fiction -- God's War by Kameron Hurley and Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Both excellent, great writing, fascinating worlds.
 
Guess-statistically people have praised Pushing Ice and Anathem so many times I'll give them a try.
 
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